What is driving AMD's resurgence?
Partners say vendor's newest chip on the block has fuelled its recent market success
AMD has long been considered a challenger to Intel - despite being a fraction of the market leader's size.
But over the last four months, AMD has been through a resurgence which has seen its share price double, culminating last week in the company publishing its best quarter in seven years.
The chip maker reported a 53 per cent year-on-year increase to $1.8bn (£1.3m) in its Q2 for this year.
The company's share prices rocketed to $18.43 the day after AMD released its results - up 93 per cent on the start of April.
In the earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha, CEO Lisa Su attributed a lot of the growth to the success of its Ryzen CPU which came onto the market, along with its GPU, Radeon.
"Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung [have] launched dozens of Ryzen processor-based notebooks, which position us well to continue growing Ryzen mobile sales, heading into the back-to-school and holiday seasons," she said.
A number of partners agreed with Su's assessment that Ryzen is driving the chip maker's success.
Dave Stevinson, MD of AMD partner GNR Technology, said the rise in share prices is "pleasing" and that he expects the price to improve, based on favourable future market conditions.
"Most analysts are predicting GPU sales to grow in excess of 30 per cent for the next three years," Stevinson claimed, adding that the core drivers of this growth will be virtual reality, artificial intelligence and computer gaming.
The vendor's computer and graphics segment saw a 64 per cent year-on-year increase in its second quarter, which Su claimed was driven by demand for both its Radeon GPUs and its Ryzen mobile processors, which saw shipments more than double in the quarter.
The chip maker predicted that the Ryzen will also fuel its third-quarter growth, with Su forecasting revenue to hit $1.7bn, representing a seven per cent year-on-year increase.
Clash of the chips
Rich Marsden, MD of AMD partner VIP Computer Centre, welcomed the chip maker's success, but was more reticent than Stevinson to predict sustained long-term success for AMD, particularly with its CPU rival Intel.
"I think Ryzen's range of CPUs brought them back in the game top to bottom. It's the first time in a long time that they have a credible offering in every space," he said, adding that AMD is a key partner for the distributor.
"The share numbers and data support long-term success for AMD, but you never know what's around the corner. It's always a challenge when you compare companies in this sector," he stated. "For AMD, they should be the best they can be and by default they will be successful."
Paul Cubbage (pictured right), MD of Target Components, said the Ryzen was a "big step" for AMD and helped its market surge, adding that it results in more competition for Intel, which is better for the channel.
"If Intel are dominant in CPUs and AMD are floundering, then AMD becomes a bit complacent; you don't get the same innovation or development, you don't get chips advancing at the same rate and these are the things that drive demand in the channel," he said.
"It's good to have two strong competing chip makers on CPU. Historically, AMD used to fill in the ‘bang for buck' against Intel, so you'd get an equivalent spec or equivalent performance product at a cheaper price with AMD.
"It has changed a bit over the years - Ryzen is now competing at the top end - but it's good to see that strength still there with AMD," Cubbage added.